The present invention relates to a musical tone control device for detecting flexional movements of fingers to control generation of the musical tones according to the detected results.
Conventionally, Japanese patent application Laid-open No. 210895/1988 discloses a musical tone control device of the type operative to directly detect movements of fingers for controlling generation of musical tones without utilizing a keyboard. This musical tone control device utilizes a plurality of finger switches attached to respective fingers and operable to turn on and off selectively according to flexional movements of the individual fingers. The control device operates according to ON/OFF information fed from the finger switches to control various factors of the musical tone signal to be generated. The finger switch is constructed to turn on and off when the flexional amount of the finger crosses a predetermined threshold level.
When playing a piano, the player senses at his finger tips a reaction resistance caused as the depressed key is stopped or a touch feeling at depression of keys to thereby keep a tempo or rhythm. In general, touch feeling of the finger tips is a significant factor for regulating tone generation timings in performance of manually operable musical instruments. However, in the above mentioned musical tone control device of the type utilizing finger switches to directly detect flexional movements of the fingers so as to generate musical tones, it is rather difficult for the performer to adopt the mechanical relation between the physical bend degree of the finger and the threshold level effective to determine ON/OFF of the finger switch. Moreover, the finger switch is turned on and off monotonously according to a fixed bend amount regardless of fingering manner and flexion velocity associated to peculiarity and tactics of an individual performer. Therefore, sounding and silencing timings of musical tones do not practically synchronize with an actual fingering operation of the performer. Even worse, there may be caused inadvertent tone generation. Thus, the conventional control device has drawbacks that it is difficult to handle or adopt.